Q: I’m not sure. Can you really help me?
Any professional who is stuck in the process of writing, in failing to produce desired writing, on time, or only producing with frustrating results, can benefit from the perfected techniques that I have developed.
Whether you are an aspiring or experienced screenwriter, a would-be novelist, or accomplished one, a seasoned academic or a struggling grad student, I have 100% confidence that I can help you to reach your publication goals more quickly and with more satisfying results.
Q: I always got A’s in English and wrote a lot, under pressure, in college, why am I struggling now?
Most likely, any training you had as a “writer” was woefully inadequate in providing you with the practical tools you need to finish major writing projects. If your writer’s education consisted of K-12 + college and even grad school, you may have “specialized” without ever learning *how* to write well. Unfortunately, this is even true of some English Graduate Programs where professors typically teach you how to think about texts, but assume you know “how” to write them.
Even very skilled writers struggle with “writer’s block.” The Internet is littered with haphazard and superstitious remedies that don’t resolve the core problems at issue in what can feel like a crippling, humiliating inability to get your work done.
And, if your training was in a science-based major, you probably have the sinking feeling that you’re even worse off. But that doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Your university major may not have prioritized writing, or dismissed it as something you “pick up” from writing in your field. It is no wonder that you’re looking for help; it’s not your fault that you’re stuck!
Q: I have to finish this project by–yesterday. Can you help?
Maybe. I can put a Band-aid on a flesh-wound, but that won’t stop the bleeding. Contact me for a free consultation and I can probably help you figure something out to resolve your situation.
Q: My dissertation is very technical. How can you help me if you are not a specialist in my field?
As a professional writing coach, with years of experience reviewing, critiquing, and improving all kinds of text for all kinds of writers, I am adept at supporting you, irrespective of discipline. I do not offer advice on what to write–that would be silly for technical, scientific, or other specialized disciplines. Yet, my cultivated methods will help you to advance and improve your writing project while also meeting subject-specific and audience-specific requirements in your field.
Unlike agents, publishers, colleagues, academic advisors or committee professors, I am not a “gatekeeper” in your life. This allows a safe sandbox in which to develop your ideas–with honest and incisive feedback that will improve your writing and bring you to your best representation of your ideas, without judgment. Then, when your draft is ready–you can impress your audience(s) with your masterful ideas, clear writing, and undeniable brilliance.
Read more about Dr. Sententia.
Q: Who are your clients?
Typically my clients are smart, overextended professionals from a variety of career circumstances who find themselves at an impasse, who recognize that they would benefit from coaching on the scope of writing project they face. If you are stuck, I can help you with your writing.
Q: How does your coaching work?
I work with each client confidentially, individually, and uniquely, to unpack the most consequential problems limiting that writer.
The specific obstacles that you face in your project become the target for tailored techniques to overcoming them and helping you to gain traction and satisfaction.
Depending on the scope of what you’re writing (or intending to write!),
I will suggest a course of action. Typically, a combination of meetings and/or document review, possibly as part of a coaching package to access comprehensive resources 24/7.
Because I work closely with the people who I know that I can help, I work with a limited number of clients. I restrict my client commitments because your project becomes my project: I invest in you, your ideas, and your outcome. This is not a writing mill, and I am NOT a ghost writer nor a copy editor.
Using a combination of discourse community analysis (PARC™) and methodologies drawing from positive psychology and the neuroscience of habit formation to improve your results, I will first assess, diagnose, and then recommend your next steps. My coaching methods are both rigorous and flexible, like me.
Read more about Dr. Wrye Sententia
Q: Is this just a cookie-cutter process?
Absolutely not. Each writer’s path and project is different. My techniques as your professional writing coach are carefully designed to help you approach, organize, and finish your particular project. From inception to completion, I provide confidential guidance that will support you at each stage along the way.
Q: I’m a graduate student. Why can’t I just have my committee review my writing?
You can. But, in graduate and professional schools, perception matters. Unfortunately, committee members often form binary impressions of your ability (smart or hopeless?) based on what should be informal encounters with you or your writing + research.
Graduate professors wield a lot of influence over your professional opportunities and should be respected in their roles. Remember, graduate professors while experts in their field of specialization, typically DO NOT understand the process of writing nor have the practical expertise to guide you in how to improve what they say is “wrong” or “needs editing.” Don’t allow your intellectual ability to be judged based on others’ ignorance of writing…Let me help!
AND, even more soberly,
If you are an international student or a first generation graduate student, or simply have not been made familiar of academic expectations in your profession’s discourse community, you could be compromising key relationships through “bad” writing without even realizing it. Many of the unwritten rules and academic expectations can be difficult to see, yet can subtly impact your career opportunities.
Q: My dissertation director told me that my chapter doesn’t “flow.” Another committee member said that I’m “choppy.” What should I do?
Sounds like a need for strategies to improve coherence for readers’ understanding. If you work with me, I will analyze your document, and/or give you a professional and confidential “second opinion” to make sense of suggestions, particularly if you find that advisor feedback you have gotten about your project is inconsistent, vague, or confusing (don’t worry, you’re not alone: it often is all of the above!).
I can help you to get feedback that you can rely on from your committee or other “gate-keepers.” I can coach you in getting what you need from them: demystify what they’re asking you to do, distinguish between what’s important in what they say and what you can safely ignore, so that you can have clarity to efficiently get your thesis or doctoral work, done.
Q: Do you edit dissertations?
No. I do not offer proofreading or line editing because both are antithetical to successful applying strong writing techniques to ensure a strong final project. Hiring an editor to “fix” your writing too early is a waste of your time and money. In my experience, writers who think they are “ready” for editing misunderstand what exactly work needs and then get sold what they don’t need by “editing” services that are incomplete.
Q: English is my second language. What do you recommend?
For a small number of ESL (English as a Second Language) or ELL (English Language Learner) writers, line editing and proofreading are legitimate concerns to help structure your work and in the presentation of final written work. For some non-native English scholars, I do recommend professional editors, but only at key points in a defined writing process.
Because of my TESOL training, I can help non-native English scholars to identify their major grammatical weaknesses/ English syntax errors. Keep a short list of “what’s wrong” as you go! This will allow you to hire a copy editor to focus ONLY on the problems that could impede a favorable reception of your doctoral work.
Email Wrye (razorwriting AT gmail.com) about your project
Sign-up to for a 1-hour consultation here.